New nonstop flights are poised to give San Jose Airport a travel lift
SAN JOSE — Two airlines are offering new nonstop flights at San Jose International Airport this year, service expansions that could lift the economic fortunes of the struggling aviation hub.
The new service will provide San Jose with nonstop connections to Las Vegas, Baltimore and Detroit, airport officials said.
Delta Air Lines and Southwest Airlines are providing the new nonstop flights serving San Jose International Airport.
The prospect of new nonstop service arrives when San Jose Airport has struggled to increase its passenger trip activity and remains far below the heights the travel hub achieved before the coronavirus outbreak.
Here are the details of the new flights and when they are likely to begin:
— Delta will begin nonstop service to Las Vegas on May 7.
— Southwest will begin nonstop service to Balimore on June 5.
— Delta will launch nonstop flights to Detroit on July 7.
The new flights offer a welcome counterpoint to the recently fading fortunes of the South Bay air travel complex.
In November 2024, San Jose International Airport handled slightly fewer than 954,800 passengers, down 1.2% from the same month in 2023, according to the latest available statistics.
The airport’s passenger trends are proceeding on a decidedly lower flight path compared to similar periods the year before.
Over the 12 months that ended in November, San Jose International Airport accommodated 11.8 million passengers, the latest report showed. That figure is 1.9% less than the total for a similar period of 12 months ending in November 2023, when the airport handled 12.03 million passengers.
San Jose’s faltering passenger activity represents a setback.
Until recent months, the South Bay aviation complex had been enjoying an improving post-COVID trend for passenger trips.
San Jose International Airport handled 4.71 million passengers in 2020, a coronavirus-induced nosedive from the record-high 15.65 million passengers in 2019. It handled 7.36 million passengers in 2021, 11.33 million in 2022 and 12.1 million passengers in 2023.
For several months, 2024 ‘s passenger totals were was trending ahead of 2023’s.
San Jose Airport, however, is now headed toward a weaker 12 months compared with last year.
Even worse, prospects appear bleak that San Jose Airport weill be able to regain the pre-coronavirus heights it had achieved in 2019.
The passenger totals for the one-year period that ended in November were 29.2% below the numbers for 2019, which was the final full year before COVID-related business shutdowns jolted the worldwide travel and airline industries.